In mid-summer 1987, punk had mellowed out, the New Wave had largely settled into synth-dance pop, heavy metal had mostly gone mainstream to pop-metal, and good ol’ rock ‘n roll was on life support, waiting for a savior. The White Knight, it turns out, was Guns N’ Roses. With their July 21, 1987 debut LP, Appetite For Destruction, they burst into the void with a swaggering, down-and-dirty, loud and unpretentious hard rock that instantly covered the landscape with sounds not heard since the Stones, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin in the 70s.

GNR formed three years earlier when the cream of two Southern California bands, L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, joined to form a new band and took to the road to spread their venomous bites of grinding rock ‘n roll. Lead guitarist Tracii Guns (nee Tracey Ulrich) and singer/frontman Axl Rose (William Rose Bailey. Jr.) formed the nucleus of the group, but Guns left before Appetite…. His replacement, Slash (Saul Hudson) formed a twin-guitar attack with guitarist Izzy Stradlin (Jeff Isbell), matching licks and riffs atop the pounding rhythm section of drummer Steve Adler and bassist Duff McKagan.

Appetite For Destruction started slowly, but increasing grassroots pressure on radio and MTV programmers gained significant airplay, especially for the three great singles that came off the LP. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (#1 in the U.S.) is power balladry at its best (and a signature GNR track). “Welcome To The Jungle” (#7) speaks to the dark underside of L.A. and its careless rock ‘n roll scene. Hard rocker “Paradise City” (#5) is about anything but paradise.

Those three hit singles and the heroin-laced, late-80s gem “Mr. Brownstone” make Appetite… a true classic and (for good reason) one of the hottest selling debut albums of all time. It’s available for purchase as a CD or individual MP3 files on Amazon, and as iPod downloads on iTunes. GNR is in Dr. Rock’s Playlist Vault.

In the summer of 1964, Beatlemania was in full force and The Beatles’ movie, A Hard Day’s Night, was in theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. Frantically trying to cash in on the pop phenomenon and not get left behind, three record companies released very similar albums of material from the Fab Four that summer, with the latecomer being Capitol Records’ Something New on July 20, 1964.

United Artists owned the rights to the movie and in late June issued what was billed as the “soundtrack album,” although only available in the U.S. and with instrumental filler by Beatle manager George Martin’s orchestra. In the U.K., Parlophone released their version of A Hard Day’s Night on July 10 with songs from the movie on Side A and tracks written for but not included in the film on Side B. Not wanting to miss the boat, Capitol responded with Something New, which offered eight songs from the movie (but not the title track), plus three fillers including the infamous “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand,” the German-sung version of the January 1964 hit “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”

This infuriating practice of simultaneous issues of similar material in different packages by two or more record companies was S.O.P. in the US and UK in the mid-60s. Market and business differences dictated separate releases, which meant all consumers – from regular fans and serious collectors – were forced to double- or triple-up to enjoy the full menu of most top-level bands. With the Beatles catalogue, it finally stopped with Sgt. Pepper’s, the first Fab Four LP to hit the streets everywhere on the same day and with the same material and packaging.

Something New is a great album and a must for any serious Beatle fan. If you can’t buy all three mid-1964 releases, this is the one to own. It’s available for purchase as a CD or individual mp3 files on Amazon, but is not currently on iTunes. The Beatles have two sets in Dr. Rock’s Playlist Vault.

5th Dimension (released July 18, 1966) was The Byrds’ third album after their blockbuster debut and sophomore releases, Mr. Tambourine Man (June 1965) and Turn! Turn! Turn! (December 1965). While not a commercial success on the level of its predecessors, 5th Dimension marked the band’s innovative shift from electrified folk-rock into a neat blend of psychedelic rock and nascent country-rock.

The standout track and rock classic, “Eight Miles High” was written by original Byrd Gene Clark, who would exit the group before 5th Dimension was completed. Clark’s departure left Roger McGuinn and David Crosby to assume the primary songwriting role, and they responded with a mix of picks and pans (with Crosby’s “What’s Happening?!?!” being dead center in the latter category). At its best, 5th Dimension is uneven, but it remains one of the mid-60s best examples of the coming diversity of folk, country and psychedelic rock (and all the mixtures thereof). The ethereal title track, the astral “Eight Miles High” (with no lead vocals and loads of spacey McGuinn/Crosby guitar work), the abstract “I See You,” the experimental “2-4-2 Foxtrot (The Lear Jet Song)” and Crosby’s aforementioned flopper are the earliest of the psych-rock genre. They’re balanced by decent folk-rock covers in “Wild Mountain Thyme” and “John Riley.” Then there’s that jaunty “Mr. Spaceman,” a sing-along country-rock gem that’s a bit dated but still has a fond 60s trippy feel.

A transitional album from a band that is now recognized for its influence on 60s and 70s psychedelic and country-rock, 5th Dimension spent half a year on the album charts and peaked at #24. Some call it a precursor and challenger to Sgt. Pepper’s as the top psychedelic rock LP. I think it’s a classic, but not that high. 5th Dimension is available for purchase as a CD or individual mp3 files on Amazon, or as iPod tracks on iTunes. The Byrds are in Dr. Rock’s Playlist Vault.